Hugely encouraging results for Novartis‘ new experimental (oral) MS treatment – Novartis’ Gilena has delivered an impressive performance in a Phase III trial in patients multiple sclerosis, cutting relapse rates by 62% in treatment-naïve patients and sustaining its effects for more than two years. Importantly, data from the two-year FREEDOMS study, presented at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting, also showed that relapse rates were reduced by a significant 44% in patients who had previously been treated with other drugs for MS, highlighting the potential benefit of switching therapies…more

Coaching Skills – The Impactiviti Partner Network is your resource if you’re looking to improve the coaching skills of your employees. Contact us (stevew at impactiviti dot com, or phone at 973-947-7429) for recommendations.

PLUS

An amusing patient health video made by J&J. Well worth 4 minutes of your time. The Appointment.

Note: if you’re going to engage in questionable marketing practices, documenting it in Powerpoint is probably not a “best practice”! Just saying…

Experiment HIV drug from Merck fails in late-stage studies – Merck & Co on Wednesday said its experimental HIV treatment vicriviroc proved ineffective in two late-stage studies involving patients who had previously been treated with other HIV medicines...more

Merck diarrhea drug does very well – Merck & Co.’s experimental drug against a germ blamed for increasing rates of deadly diarrhea in U.S. hospitals and nursing homes cut repeat infections by 72 percent, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine said…more

Upcoming oral MS drugs are very promising – Study results suggest they are much more effective than expensive “disease modifying” MS drugs such as beta interferon and glatiramer acetate, which have to be injected….more

Curriculum Analysis – We have partners that can analyze your current curriculum to insure it is tightly connected to key strategies and goals, identify gaps and build learning paths that support measurable results for key roles in your organization. Contact us (stevew at impactiviti dot com, or phone at 973-947-7429) for recommendations.

Wyeth and ghostwritten articles. This is going to be ugly – Wyeth paid a company to ghostwrite medical journal articles about its hormone therapy products and seek academic scientists to sign them as authors, a U.S. senator said. Documents from lawsuits suggest the drugmaker hired DesignWrite Inc. of Princeton, New Jersey, to draft manuscripts related to the Wyeth products and breast cancer risks, according to letters released today from Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa to the companies. Wyeth makes the hormone replacement drugs Prempro and Premarin…more

More trouble for Elan/Biogen’s Tysabri – Yet again, the multiple-sclerosis medication has caused a serious brain infection, the same malady that prompted the drug to be withdrawn in 2005 for about a year. A German MS patient contracted PML, or progressive multifocal leukoencephalopthy, and remains hospitalized…moreWhen you look at the numbers, however, it’s still a pretty small incidence. My question – if it weren’t an exotic brain infection, would this get so much press attention??

Would you like some Ritalin with that syllabus? – “We should welcome new methods of improving our brain function,” they write. “In a world in which human workspans and lifespans are increasing, cognitive enhancement tools – including the pharmacological – will be increasingly useful for improved quality of life and extended work productivity, as well as to stave off normal and pathological age-related cognitive declines. Safe and effective cognitive enhancers will benefit both the individual and society.” more

Newer antipsychotics: much ado about nothing? – The common distinction between first- and second-generation antipsychotics has no scientific basis and should be dropped, according to a paper in The Lancet. A meta-analysis of 150 double-blind studies found little evidence that newer, so-called atypical antipsychotics are more effective than older drugs for symptoms of schizophrenia, MedPage Today writes…more

Choose your friends wisely-and happily – Researchers looked at the social networks of more than 4,700 people whose happiness, along with other factors, had been tracked for 20 years. Those surrounded by cheery souls were more likely to have sunny dispositions, even if they didn’t known them…more

KV Pharma CEO: walked out or booted out? – This is one for the gossips. Marc Hermelin, the KV Pharmaceuticals ceo, is leaving under what could be politely called disputed circumstances. The drugmaker says he was fired, but Hermelin issued his own statement that he informed the board earlier this week that he is simply retiring, according to reports…more

Malaria vaccine one step closer – Two papers published in The New England Journal of Medicine are reporting the success of a pair of new vaccines tested in children in Africa. And experts say the results may open the door to sweeping trials of the vaccines in seven African nations by early 2009 and a completed formulation ready for approval by 2011. “We are,” Christian Loucq, director of the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, tells Time, “one step closer to the day when malaria will join diseases like smallpox and polio.” more

Last week was ASH (American Society of Hematology) week, so we’ll feature a number of news items about blood diseases and treatments…

Encouraging blood platelet boost seen with Glaxo’s oral drug Promacta – Patients treated with GlaxoSmithKline PLC’s Promacta rather than a placebo were eight times more likely to have sustained increases in platelet counts, according to pivotal trial results announced by the company on Saturday…more

Zevalin – effective. You’ll have to flounder through all the technical terms to grasp the details!

Treanda may get to first-line treatment – Cephalon Inc’s Treanda was as effective in treating non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma as the standard chemotherapy regimen with far less toxicity, according to interim analysis of a late-stage study that could pave the way for the drug’s use as an initial treatment for the disease…more

Allos experimental drug for lymphoma shows strong results – Allos Therapeutics Inc said on Saturday a small, but potentially pivotal, trial of its experimental drug pralatrexate found it helped curb cancer in 27 percent of patients with an aggressive type of lymphoma…more

Rituxan + chemo for leukemia: yep. – A combination of Genentech Inc’s cancer drug Rituxan and chemotherapy reduces by 41 percent the risk of death or cancer progression, compared with chemotherapy alone, for patients with a common form of leukemia, the company said on Saturday…more

Zometa: tumor shrinker – the osteoporosis drug zoledronic acid (Zometa) appears to shrink breast tumors in patients who undergo chemotherapy. The drug is already approved to treat breast cancer that has spread to the bone and, earlier this year, was reported to lower the risk of breast cancer recurrence in pre-menopausal women with early estrogen- or progesterone-positive tumors…more

Hormone replacement pills: not good news – Taking the hormones for five years doubles the risk for breast cancer, according to a new analysis of the Women’s Health Initiative, a large federal study, revealing the most dramatic evidence yet of the dangers of the popular pills..more

Welcome!

Steve Woodruff
President, Impactiviti

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